Erich Segal

writer and scholar

Born:June 16, 1937

Died:January 9, 2010
(London, England)

Best Known as:author of Love Story

Segal is best known for writing Love Story, a
novelized version of a 1970 screenplay about two lovers, well-heeled
Oliver Barrett IV and working-class Jennifer Cavilleri, who fall in love
and marry despite the disapproval of Oliver's family. The book spent more
than a year on the best-seller list. The film version, also released in
1970, starred Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw, is credited with
ushering in the era of the modern blockbuster. The film earned seven
Academy Award nominations and won for Best Score. Segal, a Yale classics
professor from 1960s to the 1980s, also wrote Oliver's
Story, a sequel to Love Story,Doctors, and The Class.